The present invention relates to wireless IC tags suitable for mounting on a member having a large dielectric constant, and methods and apparatuses for manufacturing the wireless IC tags. In particular, the present invention relates to a wireless IC tag suitable for mounting on a power cable, a communication cable or the like, and a method and apparatus for manufacturing the wireless IC tag.
For the purpose of article management, theft or fraud prevention; a wireless tag for obtaining information on an article in a non-contact manner has been developed and put to practical use. For example, JP-A-11-339142 discloses a tag which has a resonance circuit including a conductor functioning as an antenna and an insulating substrate sheet as a spacer, in place of a prior art wireless tag used for the purpose of theft prevention. A radio wave having a predetermined frequency is transmitted to the aforementioned wireless tag (referred to as “tag for preventing theft” in the JP-A-11-339142), and a tag for receiving and detecting the radio wave is used to monitor the article having the tag attached thereto for theft prevention. The wireless tag has a feature of high sensitivity. In other words, the wireless tag can be detected over a long distance.
Also disclosed in JP-A-2003-203527 is a technique for reading cable information including the manufacturer name, manufactured date, specifications, length, etc. of a cable such as a power cable or a communication cable, on the surface or in the outer layer of which a wireless IC tag is mounted. According to this technique, since the wireless IC tag is mounted at intervals of a predetermined length on the cable, cable information can be read not only at the terminal of the buried cable but also at any given position thereon.